Ghanaian eye surgeon brings vision of Africa to Calgary students

CALGARY, May 14 /CNW/ - Dr. Bo Wiafe, an inspiring eye surgeon and regional director for Africa with Calgary's Operation Eyesight will visit the Calgary French & International School on Monday, May 17 from 9:30 - 10:30 a.m. The school is located at 700 77 Street SW.

Dr. Wiafe will present to junior and senior high school students why unnecessary blindness is highly prevalent in Africa and throughout the developing world. He will also show them how, with the support of Canadian donors, Operation Eyesight is addressing the problem in Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda and Zambia.

Dr. Wiafe oversees all of Operation Eyesight's projects in Africa, working directly with medical partners and communities to help build and support their ability to meet the eye care needs of their communities. Projects range from building, renovating and equipping hospital eye units and clinics to creating rural outreach programs, training medical staff and implementing major environmental changes like well drilling and sanitation programs.

With more than 25 years of experience in ophthalmology, Dr. Wiafe is widely recognized as an authority in the development of sustainable eye care in the African region, notably in Zambia where he worked for 20 years before returning to his home country of Ghana. In Zambia, Dr. Wiafe helped the government develop a quality eye care program, set new standards for the number of surgeries performed and piloted a model trachoma control program which reduced the blinding disease's prevalence from 45 per cent to 5 per cent.

While visiting Calgary, Dr. Wiafe will be a keynote speaker at the Bethune Round Table, a conference on surgical issues in the developing world sponsored by the Office of International Surgery and the Department of Surgery, University of Calgary.

Operation Eyesight is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of avoidable blindness in the developing world. We work with medical professionals and communities in Africa and India to help provide quality eye care programs and sustainable community development. Since 1963, through the support of our donors, 35 million of the world's poorest people have had their sight restored or protected. To learn more about our work, visit www.operationeyesight.com.

Calgary French & International School (CFIS) is the leading, accredited private school offering a full immersion education from preschool to high school. French immersion is the basis of the program. Spanish instruction begins in grade 4 and intensive Spanish is core to the junior & senior high programs. For more information, visit www.cfis.com.

For further information: Lynn Leduc, Media Consultant, [email protected], [phone] or Lindsay O'Connor, Head of International Media, [email protected], [phone], [phone]